It is estimated that 16 million Americans have diabetes. Those people who have “type 1 diabetes,” also called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), do not produce insulin and need regular shots of it to maintain their blood glucose at a normal level. As a result, people with type 1 diabetes must test their blood sugar regularly, often several times a day, to determine the amount of insulin to be injected. Devices for testing glucose levels in blood are known in the art, a representative example of which being disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,532, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Many other electrochemical and colorimetric test devices are known in the art.
People suffering from diabetes are often at a higher risk for other diseases. For example, cardiovascular disease is by far the leading cause of death in the United States, and people with diabetes are at much higher risk. Diabetes also contributes to kidney disease, or “nephropathy,” which occurs when the kidneys do not filter properly and protein leaks into urine in excessive amounts, which eventually can cause kidney failure. Diabetes is a leading cause of damage to the retina at the back of the eye and also increases risk of cataracts and glaucoma. Nerve damage caused by diabetes, especially in the legs and feet, may interfere with the ability to sense pain and contributes to serious infections.
Because of their higher risk of other complications caused by diabetes, people having the disease must periodically monitor blood or urine for substances other than glucose to ensure good health. For example, the concentrations of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides provide an indicator of the risk for cardiovascular disease, and can be measured by sampling blood. Test strips and methods for using same are well-known in the art. Similarly, ketone monitoring is also important to detect diabetic ketoacidosis, which results from consistently high glucose levels and stressful events. Unlike glucose monitoring, however, testing for these other “analytes” need be conducted less frequently, perhaps once or twice per month.
What is needed is a testing apparatus that addresses a diabetic's need to monitor blood glucose levels frequently and to monitor other body fluids on a less frequent basis.